chefcoco

Hi,


I live in Denver and our backyard consists of a small courtyard of concrete. The townhome was built in 1984 and currently the concrete is a faded red and there are 3 cuts.

The problem is one slab has dropped/sunk and is sloped towards the home for a potential moisture problem. Nothing is wrong with the other concrete. Except for when you step outside my back door, there is a 10 inch drop. It would be nice to raise the outside patio around 2 inches so the step is only 8 inches.

Of course, I would like the smartest and most economical option while addressing the above problem. Since we love to sit outside in the summers, it would be nice to also make everything look the same.

Can we fill the sunken slab to make everything level with something and then maybe tile over the entire area to give it a nice look? What about compacted granite as a fill? Or do we have to tear out perfectly good concrete just so it will match the new slab? Can we fill the void and then build a small composite deck on top?

We have 419 sqft and we have been quoted $3500 - $4150 for colored concrete, broom finish. Ouch! I need options please.

inspectorD

call in a concrete company that does mudjacking. Basically they come in and pump underneath the slab a hydrolic grout. You don't see it, but it will lift the slabs into the original positions. No mess, less $$ than demo and replacement.
Let us know how it turns out.

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joecaption

You can not just install composit lumber over a slab. It needs at least 12" of free air space under it so it does not mold up.

chefcoco

Thank you joecaption and inspectorD. Both valid and great points. I am considering mud jacking to fix the slope and drainage problem. But then I still have the issue that my backyard consists of two different materials - 2/3's red stained slab and 1/3 aggregate. They look different and I want to make it all look the same.

After mud jacking, can I tile over it? Or can I pile a bunch of granite stone on top of the old slab and have it compacted.

inspectorD

No on the tile, it will most likely pop in your climate. But a loose paver brick or stone over a bit of compacted crushed stone could work.
You still need to set the concrete underneath to slope away from the house with a slight pitch to run the water away. But not fast enough to erode the stone away.
Some folks actually glue the pavers to the concrete, I don't like it because they still pop over time in Ice thaw climates.
It will always be a small maintinence issue , but easy and less expensive than redoing the base.

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kaytav

This question in Introduction section? what is this thread doing in here, Moderator please move it to other section..